#su roop

UltimateZer0 from www.linuxquestions.org put down the groundwork for this. I’ve modified it somewhat. Usage: CD into a directory and run this script. It’ll create the mp3s for you from the oggs.

sudo apt-get install vorbis-tools lame will get the required tools for this.

The ogg files don’t auto-delete on their own, this is so you can test them.

#!/bin/bash
#credit: UltimateZer0 from www.linuxquestions.org
#sudo apt-get install vorbis-tools lame

oggdec *ogg
for f in *.wav ; do lame –preset 192 -ms -h “$f” ; done
#lame –preset 192 -ms -h *wav
#rm *.ogg
rm *.wav
#the filenames are .wav.mp3, changes to just .mp3
rename -v ’s/\.wav.mp3$/\.mp3/’ *

I’m currently running the default wordpress theme with some minor modifications. The current version can be downloaded here.

I’ve tried this before but have never been sucessful. With this guide I was able to tunnel VNC over SSH in under 1 minute:

http://martybugs.net/smoothwall/puttyvnc.cgi

Download the latest driver from nvidia.com/drivers

Log out of Ubuntu, press CTRL+ALT+F1

Login, change to sudo -i and stop /etc/init.d/gdm

Run sh NVidia driver name

Install it saying yes to everything, especially 32bit drivers if it asks (this will prevent Gnome from running in 8.10 with Nvidia 180.22 drivers).

You could probably start the xserver back up but I haven’t experimented with this part enough.

I recently found an issue where a clean install of 64bit ubuntu 8.10 will lose it’s mouse focus in OpenGL fullscreen apps. The workaround is to disable desktop effects. The fix is to manually install the 180.22 driver.

I ran into this problem in Ubuntu 8.10 64bit. This doesn’t happen on the same harwdare with Ubuntu 8.10 32bit or 9.04 alpha 3 64bit. In games like Nexuiz and OpenArena I could see my mouse cursor but couldn’t move it. The keyboard worked fine.

A workaround was to disable the Visual Effects under system preferences. Easy enough and I know it’s resolved in 9.04 as I didn’t have this issue there.

This is an excellent step and really recommended if you make many changes to your system (different distros, distro upgrades). Moving forward, I plan on setting up all new systems with their own /home partitions.

Step 1: Partition the drive
I used the following Scheme:

Step 2: Copy your data
Boot back into your OS, mount the home parition and copy the data over.

find . -depth -print0 | cpio –null –sparse -pvd /media/newhome
source

This works pretty well. It seemed to have missed a gig of data with du -s checking. This needs to be improved on. Also it didn’t get all permissions. I had to do sudo chown -R user:user .* to get all files that start with “.”

After this procedure, I installed my OS on the first primary partition. After booting into my new install, all of my old settings were there. It was sweet.

In 9.04 The proprietary hardware driver didn’t find my Geforce 8400 GS card that 8.10 detected. I manually installed the driver from NVIDIA’s website (referred to as NVIDIA-driver-file.run).

You need to stop GDM to install this driver:

ctrl+alt+F11 then  ctrl+alt+F1
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop
sudo sh ./NVIDIA-driver-file.run
This installer will update your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. Add the following to the bottom of that file:

Section “ServerFlags”
Option “IgnoreABI” “True”
EndSection

I had ABI errors and the driver wouldn’t load until I added those three lines to the bottom. OpenGL now works great.

Some significant improvements were made to this version. I was running 2.0x previously. Two biggest improvements for me: 3d acceleration via OpenGL and the removal of the vbox virtual network interfaces: a bridge is all you need!

The upgrade proceedure is painless and fast. Download the latest version from http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/.

Next shut down your virtual boxes and then delete your virtual NIC’s: VBoxDeleteIf vbox0 (use ifconfig to check)

Next remove vbox 2.0x with sudo dpkg -r virtualbox-2.0 (this will keep your configs)

Finally install the new version with dpkg -i (filename you dl’d earlier)

To enable 3d acceleration, check the box for this on existing/new hosts and Install vbox guest addons. If it’s an existing vbox, you need to re-install guest addons.

You’ll notice the VBoxAddIF command doesn’t even exist anymore. Sweet!

ls /etc/udev  — look for persistent-net
This file’s preceding number seems to have changed in the releases

Edit the persistent-net file, you can go to the end of the line to rename the eth1 to whatever you like

Don’t forget to update /etc/network/interfaces when you’re done.

This laptop came with Windows Vista home. I found that too slow for normal use and it took too long to boot up. Ubuntu 8.10 works great. I figured I’d load Windows 7 x86-64 on it (build 7000). Here are the specs:

Intel Dual Core T2390 1.86ghz, 2GB DDR2
160GB Hdd, DVD +/- RW
3 USB ports, multi-function card reader, vga port, svideo port
Onboard Intel graphics and sound
Atheros 242x a/b/g wireless

Installation with timestamps:

4:27:20am - install started (from “Windows is loading files…” prompt)
(subtract a few minutes for my personal changes (partition, raid/scsi drivers)
4:46:51am - first restart, install continues System boot: 58 seconds
4:52:08am - screen resolution detected as is at native 1280×800
4:53:57am - another restart?
4:54:46am - completes windows loading screen
4:55:27am - detects settings and goes to username prompt

I set the time, username, password, hostname, disable activation (30 day trial), setup wireless (Atheros 242x detected and is up), Disable homegroup crap. Kinda bad that this wasn’t all requested when I started.

5:03:37am - I am at a usable Desktop

Consider that I never did this install before so I played with some settings. When I accidentally selected auto-activate I rebooted (I don’t want to do this). This install can probably be done in 20-25 minutes which is decent on a $400 laptop. I wish it asked for all information up front though. I don’t know why it needs 3 reboots to a usable state.

Nice features of the install:

easy to use, graphical partition manager.

- xp had an ugly looking one but it did work. this is simple and intuitive
- click advanced options to delete other partitions
- my partition changes didn’t need a restart

built in driver support (raid, scsi with flash drive support or cdrom!)
- xp required a floppy disk or slipstreaming. both are a pain, this has a file browser option to choose cd/flash

you can close the installer and it takes you back to the main install screen, no reboot required if you want to change something small

My nic, wifi drivers, sound and video drivers all installed automatically. Very nice to see.

Post install:

I really wanted to know what the speed was like compared to Vista. It’s way faster than Vista on this laptop.
- common tasks like control panel, changing mouse speed, device manager are close to instantaneous.
- changing themes is faster than ubuntu 8.10. There’s a Canada theme!
- 9 seconds to start ie8… meh.
- 9 seconds to start firefox. installation was quick quick though. no problem getting my ISP’s 10mbits/sec to download it.
- 10.9GB are used to install the OS. This has no software other than the OS…. pretty bad.
- 30% of my 2GB of memory are in use running the desktop. 600mb is not great for the OS alone.

Reboot from the OS:
5:18:43am - requested OS reboots
5:19:55am - bios scren
5:19:38am - login screen
5:20:16am - type password and press enter
5:20:25am - usable state

User switching time is negligable, 2-3 seconds at worst.

Playing HD movie files
- downloaded and installed Vista Codec Package and Vista Codec x64 Components, use built in Windows Media Player
- streamed a 720p x264 5gb file over my network (gigabit to 802.11g AP)
- file plays well, 60-100% PCU on this system… I’m just happy it plays the file smoothly.
- tried medium motion 1080p x264… also smooth. It does play in the 70-90% CPU range on both cores. averaged about 60% the whole time, great for a 1.86ghz cpu.
- Tried a 1080p VC1 file
- During a car chase, it is unwatchable.
- The CPU isn’t maxing out so it’s probably the GPU that can’t handle this.